<p>I’m going to bump this back up with more information</p>
<p>tldr: I prefer OSU to Pitt and both are good enough colleges, but I’m tired of settling for good enough like I did in h.s. Paying is only a problem in the mind of one parent, and it would not financially burden our family (no loans, no lifestyle changes at all really). </p>
<p>I visited OSU and it felt better than Pitt and they cost the same at around 7k tuition per year but their programs are fairly similar imho. CMU would be 55K tuition. We can pay for that without taking out loans or altering our way of life in any way whatsoever (we live well below our means and that resulted in an EFC of well over 200K and we live in a low cost area)</p>
<p>My Dad has no intention of paying as he sees it as a bad investment, my mom wants me to go wherever I think will be best for me regardless of cost. I saw the programs at Pitt and OSU and I saw a massive gap between them and CMU in all honesty, yet I do think the college experience is stronger at either of them.</p>
<p>The problem there is I settled for mediocrity in H.S., I had the capablility to really stand out. Yes I arrogantly think I’m smarter than the other people who post crazy stats here because of how easy they came. I only got a 33 and a 2320, but those were single sitting having only done 5 TOTAL practice questions between the two. I got 2 800 SAT2s doing 10 practice questions each in classes I took the year before. I have 5s like many students on AP’s but I never did homework or studied for those tests AT ALL. </p>
<p>I COULD HAVE STOOD OUT AND DONE SOME AWESOME STUFF with my smarts and done competions and robotics classes and whatnot but I decided that was ok enough to get me in anywhere and I paid the price with Schreyers rejection at PSU, no Ivy’s and no money from CMU. I’m done just settling, but going to OSU would be settling for less than my absolute maximum that I can do and I’m done just getting by I’m ready to do whatever I have to to kick some serious butt I swear.</p>
<p>I guess that turned into a rant but with that in mind does the answer change? I want to enroll soon so I can get decent housing but a part of me is still not ready to accept OSU. I’m also starting to itch to visit RPI although I didn’t think I’d like it much and its too far its an easier price for my dad to stomach than CMU and still a darn good Engineering school</p>